We all know newspapers have bias whether it’s to the right or to the left. The Daily Mirror loves Labour, always have and always will. The Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph – well you know what you get with them. However the paper with the most political bias at the moment seems to be The Guardian.

On Friday 30th April 2010 – The Guardian spectacularly came in support of the Lib Dems. It seemed like an important moment for the party. In retrospect it was a mere footnote of the 2010 General Election. However when the Lib Dems did not do as well as hoped and in turn joined a coalition with the Conservative Party, The Guardian have acted like a woman scorned.

Yesterday I read an article asking Are the Liberal Democrats staring into the abyss?. The answer is no but the journalistic put together a good 2,000 words to try to suggest that they are. Citing the fall of David Laws, the fact that a few councillors have switched sides and their dwindling support at the polls as his main evidence.

He then speaks to Adrian Sanders, Lib Dem MP for Torbay, who sums up what I think in this one quote, “Unlike the bulk of the Liberal Democrat membership, the current leadership and their advisers are dominated by people who give the impression they didn’t, among other things, enter politics to deny the Conservatives political power. That is the fundamental difference between them, and those who . . . view the Tories as the opposition to just about everything we stand for.”.

The party I support do not exist solely to stop the Conservatives. Surely that has to be the case. However the hierarchy at The Guardian do not agree. They clearly think that doing a deal and not doing everything at all costs to stop the Conservatives is the most treacherous thing that a political party that they endorsed could do.

The Oldham East & Saddleworth result was a wash pretty much. Labour’s support went up as did the Lib Dems. The Conservative vote collapsed. Basically it went down how most people expected but The Guardian in several articles today have made it clear that by not winning the seat – a seat the Liberal Democrats have never won in an election – that it was a disastrous night for the party and once again proves they are spent as a political force.

Just a tad OTT don’t you think?

Had the Lib Dems not gone into a coalition or rebelled over the Tuition Fees or the cuts then the Lib Dems probably do win this seat. The 3rd party often do well in by-elections and at this moment the third-party is Labour as the other two major parties are in government. However national polls say the Lib Dems basically have seven possible voters whilst Labour have 30million and the Tories 25million or so. This means that the odds of any of those seven living in this constituency was surely low but shockingly enough over 11,000 votes were polled for the Lib Dems.

What does this say? It says that once people on the ground listen to why the Lib Dems are doing what they are doing they are being swayed. Oldham East & Saddleworth shows that the Lib Dems aren’t dead in the water quite clearly and the vote share held up. Yes some of that vote probably came from Tories either a) not voting or b) voting for the Lib Dems and some of the Lib Dem vote from May will have drifted away but it also shows that the Lib Dems have not been and will not be wiped out.

So whatever The Guardian wants to print it doesn’t cover up the facts. The Lib Dems are clearly alive and kicking. They might not be getting a parade anytime soon but they aren’t hated as much as the national polls (and the media at large) are trying to make out. If people listen then they’ll understand. The problem for the Lib Dems is that most people will not give them the time of day to listen. If they do – things aren’t nearly as bad as many feared…

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‘The party I support do not exist solely to stop the Conservatives. Surely that has to be the case. ‘

I would hope so. One reason I have voted LD in the past is I have felt that, as a result of working with another party being the only realistic chance of their having any governmental influence, they as a party could be more reasonable and less rabid about other parties, they could work to a consensus. I simply find it hard to understand how people can be so firmly opposed to a party, be it Labour or the Tories, that any working with them must be a betrayal. They manage it at a local level.

If people weigh up the LD actions and decide the compromises made are not worth the gains, I would understand it, but right after the election there were self righteous, insufferable pundits, like Mehdi Hasan for instance, declaring that the LDs had betrayed every one of their voters, none of whom could possibly accept the only realistic political outcome besides a minority government as reasonable, because any working with the evil Tories is a betrayal. As though working with Labour would not have entailed some very painful concessions as well.

God, it makes me so frustrated it makes me rant! I apologise. I hope you are right the OES result might be indicative of the wider poltical reality, and that we keep a strong third party, but I am pessimistic about that. There is too much to gain for the other parties from it to let up the spinning that the LD are doomed, even if, like OES, the result does not support that, even if it is not definitive proof things will be ok either.